Do you want to live your life full of energy and enthusiasm or do you want to stay the same and be the same person for the entirety of your existence on this planet? Yes, this same principle applies to cold showers along with most of the topics that I’ve discussed with you guys before today.
You may not realize it, but your hot shower in the morning is actually slowing you down. If you are already taking a cold shower every morning, or half hot, half cold, which is my personal favorite, props to you, and continue your reign atop the pyramid of energy.
Research has shown that taking a hot shower actually relaxes you by reducing the production of a chemical called Oxytocin. This chemical is most associated with stress and anxiety. Now, while it is good to reduce, there are a plethora of activities that you can perform before you go to sleep that reduce those.
Right after you wake up, there’s nothing admirable about doing something that reduces your stress. You need stress. Of course you need to manage it well, but without that essential chemical, nothing will happen in your life. In fact, you will be a lifeless blob without a purpose if you cease to have stress.
Meditation and Yoga are amazing activities that can lower oxytocin, and other chemicals such as cortisol, which is linked directly to stress. Doing these right before bed is your best answer. Other posts in the future will address each of these activities in depth. Let’s hop back into cold showers.
On a personal note, without examining any of the science, I have found such a tremendous gap between the days where I take a cold shower in the morning, right when I wake up, compared to the days where I take a hot shower.
My energy is up, and it actually skyrockets into the stratosphere. I get out of the shower in a rage of excitement and intensity, something that just did not and cannot happen when you immensely relaxed after stepping out of the shower. I’m ready to take on the day, ready to win, ready to be crowned king/queen of my own day by myself when I’ve finished my day. That just does not happen if I do not take a cold shower.
This gives me the ability to take my day into my own control. I have all the energy I need to win the day, on my own terms, with whatever the obstacles the day can throw at me, and I’ll be ready for them.
When you take cold showers consistently, according to science, you have an automatic increase in circulation. This is crucial to making sure nutrients travel well throughout your body and making sure your nerves are innervating your muscles as they should be and not faltering when it may matter the most. Great circulation also increases your lung capacity over time as well, which is why once you start taking cold showers, you should continue them and do them every single morning. Right now, if you are completely new to cold showers and the benefits they provide, you’re probably thinking, “Every day?!?!?! Is this guy insane???” Believe me, I thought the exact same thing. I thought that cold showers were something that people did just to prove that they were extremely tough to themselves and their peers.
That is an awesome benefit to cold showers, but the main benefits are listed above, with the gigantic benefit being your blood flow increases. If this starts to happen in your body over a significant period of time, say 6-8 weeks, then you will most likely alleviate yourself of most common injuries, digestive issues, and muscular imbalances. Blood flow increasing allows everything else in your body to work properly.
So, I will repeat the question I asked at the beginning. Do you want to live your life full of energy and enthusiasm or do you want to stay the same and be the same person for the entirety of your existence on this planet?
If you truly want to, then you should know by now that with success comes struggle. They are handcuffed together, and the only way that they are not linked is with everyone handing you everything in your life, but then, is that really success?
I want to, and I hope that you do as well. Therefore, the decision should be an easy one. Take a cold shower, muscle through it, feel the benefits, most likely become obsessed with them and start living your life, not just hoping and dreaming about it. Or you could keep on taking hot showers, because of an irrational fear of change plaguing your ability to switch to be in cold for 5 minutes a day, and as a result of that irrational fear, you will stay the same and never progress with anything in your life, I am very sorry to say.
I love everyone of you. I adore the fact that you’re reading this right now. If you’ve made it this far makes me believe that you actually want to evolve. SO DO!!! Actually change for once in your life. If you’re not going to do it for yourself, then do it for that person that you love that would be a better person if you did too.
Be the change you want to see in other people. Most of us rarely do. I believe I will. I believe you can too.
F*ck Average. Come win with me.
Oxytocin Article